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Water

What's new with Water

Pereniality in surface hydrology datasets updated by Geoscience Australia from Water Observations from Space dataset.

Theme sponsor

Bureau of Meteorology

Description

Water can be described by hydrology; the study of the movement, distribution and quality of water, including the hydrologic cycles, water resources, environmental watershed sustainability and groundwater systems. The Water theme focuses on datasets related to surface and groundwater and excludes atmospheric, industrial or oceanic water processes. Understanding water interactions requires knowledge of the features that make up the hydrological system such as catchments, streams, aquifers, floodplains, and storages.

Committees

ICSM Water Special Interest Group (WSIG)

Standards

ISO191* series has been considered, fully implemented

AS/NZ4819:2011

AS4590

Australian Standard AS1199.1-2003

Water Act 2007

Datasets

Surface Hydrology provides a set of related feature classes to be used as the basis of the production of consistent hydrological information. This dataset contains a geometric representation of the (major) surface water features of Australia. Primarily, these are natural surface hydrology features, but the dataset also contains some artificial features (notably reservoirs, canals and other hydrographic features).

Groundwater Boundaries are a nationally consistent set of groundwater boundaries and properties; including aquifer boundaries, geometry, salinity, yield and hydraulic conductivity.

Groundwater Bores are a nationally consistent set of groundwater bores (including monitoring, irrigation and commercial bores) and associated lithology, construction and hydro-stratigraphy logs.

Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems are ecological and hydrogeological information on known groundwater dependent ecosystems and ecosystems that potentially use groundwater.

Description

The Water theme (Water) encompasses hydrology which is the study of the movement, distribution and quality of water, including the hydrologic cycles, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability.

Datasets

Surface Hydrology provides a set of related feature classes to be used as the basis of the production of consistent hydrological information. This dataset contains a geometric representation of the (major) surface water features of Australia. Primarily, these are natural surface hydrology features, but the dataset also contains some artificial features (notably reservoirs, canals and other hydrographic features).

Groundwater Boundaries are a nationally consistent set of groundwater boundaries and properties; including aquifer boundaries, geometry, salinity, yield and hydraulic conductivity.

Groundwater Bores are a nationally consistent set of groundwater bores (including monitoring, irrigation and commercial bores) and associated lithology, construction and hydro-stratigraphy logs.

Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems are ecological and hydrogeological information on known groundwater dependent ecosystems and ecosystems that potentially use groundwater.

Purpose

Water security is one of Australia’s major challenges. The benefits of using these nationally consistent datasets and products are to facilitate better analysis, improve decision making and understand the resulting impacts.

An important element of the ANZ Foundation Spatial Data Framework (FSDF) Water theme is knowledge of the contained features; the catchments, streams, aquifers, floodplains and storages that make up the hydrological system. In developing and delivering water resource information the location of these features is as vital as the information about the interactions between the features.

Water information supports the government in addressing issues such as:

Climate change

Water and natural resource management, including coal seam gas extraction

Flood mapping

Emergency management

Hazard mitigation or disaster risk reduction

Environmental planning and monitoring

Urban development and agriculture

Insurance, engineering and mining

Current status

Jurisdictions currently update the Water theme with information from relevant stakeholders and custodians through; data verification from other internal and external databases, imagery interpretation, research, and field investigations. Information is held at a range of scale 1:25 000 to 1:250 000 resulting in inconsistent accuracy and capture at the national level.

Future objectives

Short Term objectives:

To provide a nationally consistent suite of Water datasets which support and deliver water resource information to the Commonwealth, jurisdictions, local government, research and industry as well as linking location of these features across other foundation themes.

Long Term Objectives include:

Continued spatial upgrades of all Water theme datasets using the latest acquired imagery with improved resolution. Improvements to hydrological enforcement using the higher resolution elevation models

Coverage

Complete, current and continuous coverage of agreed Water data set(s) for all Australia.

Sponsor

Bureau of Meteorology

Key users

Key users of the surface hydrology data are Commonwealth, State and Territory and Local governments and the Research and Industry sectors.

This data is used by these bodies to better manage and research water information.

Additional

This theme does not include information on navigation or navigability as this is handled by the Transport theme; include depth information, as this will be handled by the Elevation theme and Wetlands information, as this in the Land Cover Theme.

Surface Hydrology

Description

The Surface Hydrology dataset provides a set of related feature classes to be used as the basis of the production of consistent hydrological information. This dataset contains a geometric representation of the (major) surface water features of Australia. Primarily, these are natural surface hydrology features, but the dataset also contains some artificial features (notably reservoirs, canals and other hydrographic features).

Purpose

The Surface Hydrology dataset is a data aggregation from multiple jurisdiction sources which outputs a seamless and consistent representation of national surface hydrology information. Specifically, the dataset is intended for defining hydrological features within a defined area that are then used in modelling and analysis.

Dataset Uses

Government agencies use this data to

Define administrative boundaries

Catchments and aquifers can form the boundaries between adjacent state governments or other administrative areas

Model areas of interest

Manage Environmental assets

Water Accounting

Asset management and monitoring

Delivering emergency or security services

Current Status

An aggregation of jurisdictional data is maintained by Geoscience Australia. This data is made up of a mixture of scale ranging from 1:25 000 to 1:250 000 across the continent.

Geoscience Australia provided inputs to the Bureau of Meteorology for the creation of Geofabric suite of products to meet the requirements of the National Water Account under the Australian Water Act 2007 and Water Regulations 2008

Future Status

Short term objectives:

Fully aggregate all jurisdictional data into a national dataset to provide a complete and consistent representation of the national surface hydrology network

Long term objectives include:

Continued spatial upgrades of all surface hydrology data using latest acquired and higher resolution imagery

Hydrological enforcement using improved elevation models

Hydrometric Monitoring point to be included into the foundation datasets

Quantity

Spatial accuracy position of the feature instance will be within 0.5mm at map scale for 90% of the well-defined points. That is:

1:25 000 = 12.5 m

1:50 000 = 25 m

1:100 000 = 50 m

1:250 000 = 125 m

In some areas of low lying or flood plain areas the spatial accuracy of features could be 250 m.

The dataset consists of lines, points and polygons representing natural and artificial features such as watercourses, lakes, dams and other water bodies. The natural watercourse layer consists of a linear network with a consistent topology of links and nodes that provide directional flow paths through the network for hydrological analysis.

Data is maintained through numerous sources including satellite imagery, aerial photography, field work and information gathered from relevant stakeholders and custodians, by data verification and testing. Revision material has also been gathered from a variety of authoritative sources

Additional

Version

Catchment Boundaries

Description

The National Catchments is a topologically consistent and hierologically enforced stream flow aggregation of boundaries

Purpose

Dataset Uses

Government agencies use this data to better manage water resources. The Australian Hydrological Geospatial fabric (Geofabric) is released through the Bureau of Meteorology which provides a framework for discovering, querying, reporting and modelling water information aligned with the definitions under the Water Act 2007 .

Government agencies use this data to

Define administrative boundaries; catchments and aquifers can form the boundaries between adjacent state governments or other administrative areas

Model areas of interest

Manage Environmental assets

Water Accounting

Asset management and monitoring

Managing flood risk

Modelling water flow

Current Status

Maintained by Geoscience Australia and derived from 9 Second DEM.

Current maintenance are revising priority areas by deriving from the 1 Second DEM.

Geoscience Australia provided inputs to the Bureau of Meteorology for the creation of Geofabric suite of products to meet the requirements of the National Water Account under the Australian Water Act 2007 and Water Regulations 2008 .

Future Status

Short Term objectives:

Fully aggregate all jurisdictional data into a national dataset providing a complete and consistent representation of the national surface hydrology network

Access and Licensing

Products and Services relating to this dataset are made available under open access policies and guidelines .

Coverage

Complete, current and continuous coverage of Australia

Quantity

The National Catchment dataset provides a seamless surface catchment layer for Australia. The dataset feature is based upon polygons converted from a regular 9 second grid delineating the surface for the Australian continent.

The Dataset includes a unique spatial identifier for each line feature. The identifier will be used to maintain the dataset and to incorporate higher resolution datasets in the future.

Additional

Version

Hydrological Obstructions

Description

Hydrological obstructions are man-made features that impact the water network either by obstruction, diversion or storage of water

Purpose

Hydrological barrier is topologically consistent feature in hydrological network. Hydrological Crossing points are critical in the identification of obstructions, diversion and storage water for the hydrological enforcement of elevation models

Dataset Uses

Government agencies use this data to better manage water resources. The Australian Hydrological Geospatial fabric (Geofabric) is released through the Bureau of Meteorology which provides a framework for discovering, querying, reporting and modelling water information aligned with the definitions under the Water Act 2007 .

Government agencies use this data to

manage assets that interact with the water network

identify assets that cross waterways

plan for funding of maintenance of those assets

Current Status

The aggregation of jurisdictional data is maintained by Geoscience Australia. A mixture of scale exists ranging from 1:25 000 to 1:250 000 across the continent.

The Bureau of Meteorology is the custodian of the suite of products to meet the requirements of the National Water Account under the Water Act 2007 and Water Regulations 2008 .

Future Status

Short term objectives include:

Fully aggregate all jurisdictional data into a national dataset which provides a complete and consistent representation of the national surface hydrology network

Improve accuracy and quality information

Long term objectives include:

Continued spatial upgrades of all surface hydrology data using current and higher resolution imagery

Access and Licensing

Products and Services relating to this datasets are made available under Australian Government open access policies and guidelines.

Coverage

Complete, current and continuous coverage of Australia

Quantity

The hydrological obstructions dataset provides a topological connection of linear and points features which interact with the hydrological network. The linear and point features are man-made structures which may obstruct or divert stream flow.

Data is maintained through numerous sources including satellite imagery, aerial photography, field work, information gathered from relevant stakeholders, custodians and by data verification and testing. Revision material has also been gathered from a variety of authoritative sources.

Spatial accuracy position of the feature instance will be within 0.5mm at map scale for 90% of the well-defined points.

That is:

1:25 000 = 12.5 m

1:50 000 = 25 m

1:100 000 = 50 m

1:250 000 = 125 m

The Dataset includes a unique spatial identifier for each feature. The identifier will be used to maintain the dataset and to incorporate higher resolution datasets in the future.

Version

Flow Direction Grid

Description

The Flow Direction Grid is a regular grid of surface flow directions accompanying the GEODATA 9 Second Digital Elevation Model (DEM) Version 3. It ascribes to each DEM point one of eight cardinal directions (E, SE, S, SW, W, NW, N, NE) denoting the direction of surface flow from each grid point to one of its eight immediate neighbours.

Purpose

The Flow Direction Grid is a representation of the (major) surface water features of Australia excluding external Territories. The dataset can be used for applications requiring accurate representation of absolute elevation values. The elevation of source data high points (hills or mountains) is well represented in Version 3. The 1:250 000m source scale of the elevation grid makes the product useful for national, State-wide and regional applications. It is intended to be used as the basis for production of consistent surface stream network analysis.

Dataset Uses

The dataset can be used for applications requiring accurate representation of absolute elevation values. The elevation of source data high points (hills or mountains) is well represented in Version 3. The 1:250 000m source scale of the elevation grid makes the product useful for national, state-wide and regional applications.

Current Status

Maintained by Geoscience Australia with development from the Australian National University (Fenner School).

GEODATA 9 second DEM and D8: Digital Elevation Model Version 3 and Flow Direction Grid 2008 released by Geoscience Australia

Future Status

Short term objective:

To improve national dataset with updates from the 1 Second DEM on a catchment boundary

Long term objectives include:

Continued spatial upgrades of stream network using latest acquired and higher resolution imagery

Improve the national coverage to 1 Second DEM replacing 9 Second DEM elevation models

Access and Licensing

Products and Services relating to this dataset are made available under open access policy and guidelines.

Coverage

Complete, current and continuous coverage of Australia, excluding external territories.

Quantity

The Flow Direction Grid database provides a 1:250 000m seamless network stream layer for Australia. The Network streams represents the flow direction of streams over the surface of the terrain, based on the GEODATA 9 grid of ground level elevation points covering the whole of Australia with a grid spacing of 9 seconds in longitude and latitude (approximately 250 metres) in the GDA94 coordinate system.

Additional

Version

Groundwater

Description

Nationally consistent set of groundwater boundaries and properties including aquifer boundaries, geometry, salinity, yield and hydraulic conductivity. The Interim Aquifer Framework has been used to standardise the hydrogeological unit terminology for this dataset.

Purpose

The groundwater dataset has been developed to collate and integrate State/Territory and regional groundwater mapping datasets across Australia. Although there are gaps in information every effort has been made to reduce or minimise inconsistencies and conflicts in overlapping or abutting datasets, and in attribution and definitions of the input datasets

Dataset Uses

The dataset is intended to be used at the regional to national scale and does not support local scale groundwater conceptualisation and modelling, and has not incorporated local and regional groundwater modelling data.

Key users of the groundwater dataset are Commonwealth, State and Territory and Local governments and the Research and Industry sectors.

Government agencies use this data to better manage water resources. The Australian Hydrological Geospatial fabric (Geofabric) is released through the Bureau of Meteorology which provides a framework for discovering, querying, reporting and modelling water information aligned with the definitions under the Water Act 2007 .

Government agencies use this data the manage assets that interact with the water network.

Current Status

The dataset is maintained by the Bureau of Meteorology. It may be updated periodically to address user feedback

Future Status

Long term objectives include:

Updating the hydrogeological unit terminology from the Interim Aquifer Framework to the National Aquifer Framework

Adding groundwater boundary and property datasets created using the National Groundwater Information System including 2.5 and 3D datasets

Access and Licensing

Products and Services relating to this theme are made available under open access policies and guidelines.

Coverage

Complete, current and continuous coverage of Australia.

Quantity

Groundwater boundaries and properties obtained from both State/Territory and Commonwealth agencies represent the best available regional and national scale digital groundwater data available at the time of collation.

Additional

Version

Groundwater Bores

Description

Nationally consistent set of groundwater bores (including monitoring, irrigation and commercial bores) and associated lithology, construction and hydrostratigraphy logs. The National Aquifer Framework has been used to standardise the hydrogeological unit terminology for this dataset.

Purpose

The groundwater bores dataset collates, standardises and spatially enables groundwater bore and bore log data held by the lead water agency in each State and Territory into a single, national repository. The dataset facilitates spatial, inter-jurisdictional and national analysis of groundwater data

Dataset Uses

Government agencies use this data to better manage water resources.

The National Groundwater Information System is released through the Bureau of Meteorology which provides the contextual and spatial data needed to interpret the time-series groundwater data (level and chemistry) submitted to the Bureau of Meteorology through the Water Regulations (the Commonwealth legislation that requires named agencies to deliver water data to the Bureau of Meteorology under the Water Act 2007).

Current Status

The dataset currently contains more than 800,000 bores and associated logs. The Bureau of Meteorology is the custodian of the dataset. They update the national dataset from State/Territory on an annual basis

Future Status

Long term objectives include:

derive 2.5D and 3D products to represent the geometry of hydrogeological units

Access and Licensing

Products and Services relating to this theme are made available under open access policies and guidelines .

Coverage

Complete, current and continuous coverage of Australia

Quantity

The Bureau of Meteorology maintains the data model that defines the structure of the National Groundwater Information System geodatabase. The lead water agencies in each State and Territory (plus the Water Corporation in WA) export and standardise data from their corporate groundwater databases into State and Territory NGIS geodatabasesThe Bureau of Meteorology then performs quality assurance and control on the State and Territory geodatabases and collates them into the national geodatabase.

The dataset includes a unique spatial identifier for each feature.

Metadata

An ISO 19115 compliant XML file of National Groundwater Information System metadata statement accompanies the Product (NGIS_v1pt1.xml), and is viewable using the ArcGIS ISO 19139 ArcCatalog metadata style sheet.

Additional

Version

Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDE)

Description

Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDE) is ecological and hydrogeological information on known groundwater dependent ecosystems and ecosystems that potentially use groundwater.

Purpose

GDE dataset aims to improve Australia's understanding of groundwater dependent ecosystems and facilitate how they are considered in water management. Information in the GDE dataset includes the ecosystems that rely on the surface and subsurface expression of groundwater and subterranean environments (caves and aquifers).

Dataset Uses

Natural resource management can use the dataset for water planning and environmental impact assessment. It indicates where ecosystems potentially interact with groundwater, and some of the characteristics of those ecosystems that may be useful in determining water requirements.

The dataset can be used for applications to identify general locations where groundwater interaction may occur. It does not imply that an entire mapped ecosystem is using groundwater, but rather within the mapped ecosystem groundwater interaction may be occurring, since only part of the ecosystem may actually be interacting with groundwater

The GDE Atlas can be used to understand the vulnerability of groundwater-dependent ecosystems to changing water management and other external factors, and developing and disseminating methods to deal with those vulnerabilities.

The GDE Atlas makes no assessment of ecosystem value, condition, sensitivity, threat or risk. There are many external factors that need to be considered in these assessments at a more detailed scale. The GDE Toolbox http://archive.nwc.gov.au/library/waterlines/69-70 provides a more detailed GDE assessment, including their identification, an assessment of ecological water requirements and determination of how changes in the groundwater environment impact on ecosystems.

Datasets can be accessed through the Atlas of Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems web mapping portal. The Atlas is a tool to assist the consideration of ecosystem groundwater requirements in natural resource management, including water planning and environmental impact assessment.

Custodian Agency and Contact

Aggregator

Distributor(s) and Products

Formats

Key Users

Key users of the national catchments are Commonwealth, State, Territory and Local governments and the Research and Industry sectors.

Additional

Other useful information includes:

http://www.bom.gov.au/water/groundwater/gde/index.shtml

http://www.bom.gov.au/water/groundwater/gde/reports.shtml

Version

1.0 Draft for Consultation

Roadmap for Water

Purpose:

The roadmap outlines the development goals for the following three years, for all national foundation datasets within each theme. The goals are to be achieved in order to meet the defined end-state for the theme.

Owner:

Details:

Goals are owned by the theme sponsor to achieve within the FSDF governance framework

Goals are designated as funded/unfunded

The roadmap is approved by ANZLIC annually

The roadmap will be referenced as a benchmark in work plans and updates to ANZLIC

The roadmap is updated annually or on a major change as required

Notes:

1. The roadmaps (and goals) are agreed by ANZLIC and FSDF sponsors. An unfunded goal indicates that the sponsor is actively seeking to resolve the funding issue. Where this cannot be resolved the sponsor may elevate the issue for the attention of ANZLIC.

2. Dataset custodians are identified in the Dataset Profiles available on this website and their role in the delivery of the roadmaps is critical. State/Territory jurisdictions are also integral to the implementation of the roadmaps.

3. Engagement with custodians and/or jurisdictions in the FSDF and roadmaps is an ongoing process through 2015.